Looking forward to your further reflections on Gen 2, and also hoping you will explore Gen 3 and if/how you see the earth/heaven symbols manifesting in God’s distinct punishment for Adam and Eve. This is now a big question mark for me after seeing a connection between the Samaritan woman’s gospel work and Adam’s punishment of Gen 3:17. Ie, does that John 4 story illustrate the movement you describe of earthly work (symbolic sowing/reaping) which leads to heavenly rest? No need to answer now, just thinking out loud :-)
Yes, in grace both their symbols are stated and reinstated. Eve, symbol of the heavenly realm (from heaven he came and sought her), is promised a male Seed (of the earth). As mother, both realm (Most High) and people (OT saints who "bottleneck" in Mary), she will bring forth that earthly Seed. In Luke 1, the Seed is the Son of the Most High, Son of God, born from above, yet also the heir of his father David (earthly realm destined for glory), one who will reign over the house of Jacob forever. In Gen. 3:16, I see Rev. 12, the Seed of the woman who crushes the Serpent who is cast out of heaven and is pursued and defeated on earth. In Genesis 3, the woman is cursed in her womb, representative of the spring and sphere of life, and the earth is cursed in relation to the man. Again Adam, the man, like Gen. 2, is associated with the dust of the earth and told he will return there. He has come from the earth and now he will return to earth. Astonishingly, Adam turns to his wife Eve and gives her a name. She will be "mother of the all-living," not the dusty all dying. She is associated with life, the sphere of life, the river of life, and the tree of life in Revelation. And in John 3 we are told, "you must be born anothen (from above)" from the realm of the all-living. The Seed is from above, from the Most High, and he has descended so that his people and the beloved cosmos (Jn. 3:16) might become again the realm of life, in the earth's union with heaven. The union of the man and the woman foreshadow the union of earth and heaven, when Zion descends to transform and conform the earth to never-ending life.
The language directed to the serpent, is explicit; the serpent is CURSED.
Adam is not cursed, but God states that as a direct consequence of disobeying Him, God is CURSING the ground-using that explicit language.
But that language IS NOT PRESENT at all; and the CONTEXT gives a VERY DIFFERENT FRAMING to God's Words to Eve, than the language that states there is active CURSING involved in the consequences for disobedience of Adam and for the evil the Serpent did in tempting Eve.
The framing is VERY SIGNIFICANT; Immediately prior to this we see Adam's words to Eve, of WONDER and RAPTURE-you are BONE OF MY BONES and FLESH OF MY FLESH...
the CONTRAST in his words in Genesis 3 could not be greater-THIS WOMAN YOU GAVE ME gave me to eat; the WONDER AND RAPTURE is now TOTALLY VANISHED and in place-no specific adjectives of derision or hatred-but a blaming of her that is STARKLY OPPOSITE to the rapture of his PREVOIUS WORDS IN THE TEXT....
in that FRAMEWORK, and in PARALLEL to the HOPE AND PROMISE in the second part of God's declaration of CURSE AGAINST THE SERPENT, the hope of the MESSIAH embodied in the second half of His Words, I see THAT as a very real textual parallel; the WOMAN, who ATE, was DECEIVED, who gave to Adam who also ATE, BOTH OF THEM experiencing the CONSEQUENCE, is GIVEN HOPE_'YET, as is CLEARLY EVIDENT from the careful exegesis of chapter 1, YOUR DESIRE will be for your husband and he will RULE OVER YOU (is not the CO-RULING of Genesis 1, in a REDEMPTIVE WAY, envisioned in these words, when we LOOK FORWARD to New Covenant expansion of these 'seeds' of the Promise made here in Genesis.
That RULE involves the NURTURING as the ONE FLESH GOD PRONOUNCED THEM, being restored-as we see this described in Paul's command to husbands under the promised NEW COVENANT; once again, only in a more FULL WAY, the woman who is wife--is to be 'nurtured LIKE YOUR OWN BODY'-restoring and going to greater FULLNESS in the original plan of becoming 'one flesh'!
And that 'one flesh' in the seminal, prototype of all relationships--when we consider it in light of the 'one and many' as was posted in anotehr substack-we see God's Design of humanity as the BODY of Christ, in a union with our HEAD, amplifying this promise even further.
Consistent with the other interwoven parts of the unified theology being presented here, we see a PROMISE to the woman in that second half, not a curse, I think...
Interesting! I would say Kierkegaard had a trinitarian understanding of the human condition, holding together body, and soul, the temporal and the eternal, freedom and necessity. And the one who must hold it together he calls the self, spirit. Finite spirit, given from infinite spirit.
"Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man" Romans 1:22-23
To me, a doctrine of male superiority appears to fit this description.
Looking forward to your further reflections on Gen 2, and also hoping you will explore Gen 3 and if/how you see the earth/heaven symbols manifesting in God’s distinct punishment for Adam and Eve. This is now a big question mark for me after seeing a connection between the Samaritan woman’s gospel work and Adam’s punishment of Gen 3:17. Ie, does that John 4 story illustrate the movement you describe of earthly work (symbolic sowing/reaping) which leads to heavenly rest? No need to answer now, just thinking out loud :-)
Yes, in grace both their symbols are stated and reinstated. Eve, symbol of the heavenly realm (from heaven he came and sought her), is promised a male Seed (of the earth). As mother, both realm (Most High) and people (OT saints who "bottleneck" in Mary), she will bring forth that earthly Seed. In Luke 1, the Seed is the Son of the Most High, Son of God, born from above, yet also the heir of his father David (earthly realm destined for glory), one who will reign over the house of Jacob forever. In Gen. 3:16, I see Rev. 12, the Seed of the woman who crushes the Serpent who is cast out of heaven and is pursued and defeated on earth. In Genesis 3, the woman is cursed in her womb, representative of the spring and sphere of life, and the earth is cursed in relation to the man. Again Adam, the man, like Gen. 2, is associated with the dust of the earth and told he will return there. He has come from the earth and now he will return to earth. Astonishingly, Adam turns to his wife Eve and gives her a name. She will be "mother of the all-living," not the dusty all dying. She is associated with life, the sphere of life, the river of life, and the tree of life in Revelation. And in John 3 we are told, "you must be born anothen (from above)" from the realm of the all-living. The Seed is from above, from the Most High, and he has descended so that his people and the beloved cosmos (Jn. 3:16) might become again the realm of life, in the earth's union with heaven. The union of the man and the woman foreshadow the union of earth and heaven, when Zion descends to transform and conform the earth to never-ending life.
The language directed to the serpent, is explicit; the serpent is CURSED.
Adam is not cursed, but God states that as a direct consequence of disobeying Him, God is CURSING the ground-using that explicit language.
But that language IS NOT PRESENT at all; and the CONTEXT gives a VERY DIFFERENT FRAMING to God's Words to Eve, than the language that states there is active CURSING involved in the consequences for disobedience of Adam and for the evil the Serpent did in tempting Eve.
The framing is VERY SIGNIFICANT; Immediately prior to this we see Adam's words to Eve, of WONDER and RAPTURE-you are BONE OF MY BONES and FLESH OF MY FLESH...
the CONTRAST in his words in Genesis 3 could not be greater-THIS WOMAN YOU GAVE ME gave me to eat; the WONDER AND RAPTURE is now TOTALLY VANISHED and in place-no specific adjectives of derision or hatred-but a blaming of her that is STARKLY OPPOSITE to the rapture of his PREVOIUS WORDS IN THE TEXT....
in that FRAMEWORK, and in PARALLEL to the HOPE AND PROMISE in the second part of God's declaration of CURSE AGAINST THE SERPENT, the hope of the MESSIAH embodied in the second half of His Words, I see THAT as a very real textual parallel; the WOMAN, who ATE, was DECEIVED, who gave to Adam who also ATE, BOTH OF THEM experiencing the CONSEQUENCE, is GIVEN HOPE_'YET, as is CLEARLY EVIDENT from the careful exegesis of chapter 1, YOUR DESIRE will be for your husband and he will RULE OVER YOU (is not the CO-RULING of Genesis 1, in a REDEMPTIVE WAY, envisioned in these words, when we LOOK FORWARD to New Covenant expansion of these 'seeds' of the Promise made here in Genesis.
That RULE involves the NURTURING as the ONE FLESH GOD PRONOUNCED THEM, being restored-as we see this described in Paul's command to husbands under the promised NEW COVENANT; once again, only in a more FULL WAY, the woman who is wife--is to be 'nurtured LIKE YOUR OWN BODY'-restoring and going to greater FULLNESS in the original plan of becoming 'one flesh'!
And that 'one flesh' in the seminal, prototype of all relationships--when we consider it in light of the 'one and many' as was posted in anotehr substack-we see God's Design of humanity as the BODY of Christ, in a union with our HEAD, amplifying this promise even further.
Consistent with the other interwoven parts of the unified theology being presented here, we see a PROMISE to the woman in that second half, not a curse, I think...
Interesting! I would say Kierkegaard had a trinitarian understanding of the human condition, holding together body, and soul, the temporal and the eternal, freedom and necessity. And the one who must hold it together he calls the self, spirit. Finite spirit, given from infinite spirit.